FORMER two-time ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang revealed the unexpected origins of his fourth match with Shinya Aoki.
It was Aoki himself — Folayang’s former rival now friend — who requested this quadrilogy bout scheduled for ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang on March 23 at Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
Though Aoki leads their trilogy 2-1 after back-to-back wins over the Filipino MMA icon, he approached Folayang for one final matchup before retiring.
“It’s actually Shinya who asked for this and I agreed. He went to Baguio back in 2023 and he asked for another match,” Folayang said.
“He’s someone who’s a huge part of my career, and now it’s all about honoring our word to each other and fighting again one more time before we call it a career.”
With Aoki’s retirement looming, Folayang couldn’t refuse the request, seeing it as both a chance to even their score and an honor to share the ring with a legend one final time.
“The last night before he went back to Japan, we just started discussing potential final fights, and that’s how it started. He told me that he wished to fight me once more and I told him yes, let’s do this,” he said.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why he went to Baguio, to ask for that fight, and of course I couldn’t say no to that.”
Despite the friendship they’ve developed over the years, Folayang promises their competitive fire remains undiminished.
“Of course, it’s a bit harder because we’re competing now as friends, but being professionals, we have to put that relationship aside,” he said.
“We both have something to prove. It’s still competition at the end of the day, albeit friendly competition, and you can’t take away that aspect in our chosen profession.”